Abracadabra ! Baba Ramdev has disappeared off the media. The great Indian Media is Houdini indeed! They can make and break, anything you want baby!
Poor Guy Ramdev, and poor Anna Hazare. What politcians and media can do together, only if they meant good!
Gandhiji said…. “…be the change…”. I wonder how will that help today?
Just some random thoughts…. I think I should just take a nap!
Vaishali is my cousins wife. She is super talented. What can I say, everyone I know are super talented people (my peeps 
)
So, when we visited her last time in Pune, she made a big spread for lunch. Fish curry (next recipe), crab curry, fried prawns, some vegetables, and this raita. Everything was so good. Yumm-O rating!
So finally, I called her yesterday and took these recipes from her. This raita is made with lots of yogurt, so I cannot call the yogurt a dressing, but technically it is I guess. God Knows! Well, who cares!
Here is the recipe!
Ingredients:
Yogurt, 2 cups, (dahi)
salt, sugar for taste
oil for the ‘tadka’
mustard seeds (raai), curry leaves (kadi patta), asafoetida (hing), green hot peppers (hari mirchi) for the tadka
boiled and chopped in small size (like corn and peas) potatoes (optional carrots, etc)
boiled sweet american corn, green peas
grated beet root
First get the vegetables ready and cooled.
For the tadka, heat the oil, add the mustard seeds, when they splatter, add the green peppers and curry leaves, and finally the asafoetida. Turn off the heat, let the tadka cool a bit. Then add it to the whisked yogurt.
Add the vegetables to the yogurt, and finally add salt and sugar as needed.
Eat it as a evening snack or part of your meal. What did I say, Yumm-O!
A different recipe for the king of vegetables. (remember the serial ‘baingan raja’ we used to watch as kids in India).
I saw this recipe on TV, and I cannot wait to try it out. It looks so beautiful, so visually tempting. Yumm.
Ingredients:
oil,
mustard seed 1 tsp,
cumin seeds 1 tsp,
garlic,
green hot pepper chopped (hari mirchi),
asafoetida (hing),
red dry chilli,
turmeric (haldi),
yogurt mixed with rice flour and little water,
eggplants (baingan) baked or roasted on flame
Method:
Heat the oil, put the mustard seeds, let them pop, add the cumin, let them sizzle, add the garlic, green peppers, and curry leaves. Add some water to prevent burning. Add the hing and the haldi. Now put the yogurt rice flour mixture, stirring continuously. Let it come to a boil, add salt, and then drop the eggplants one at a time.
(While roasting the eggplants, cut some slits through them, then roast over flame, or on barbecue, peel off the skin, when they are hot)
I think this will taste great with rice, naans, rotis, or even a slice of bread!
Past few days, I have been just hogging away! Brain’s dead, no warnings or realization of consequences. Just eat, eat, eat, and eat.
One of the devil dishes I had was Rabdi (pronounced ‘ra-buh-dee’). Its just milk which is basically boiled down to be 1/4 th its original volume (think Fat, yeah, thats it). Add some sugar, some dry fruits, some cardomom, some saffron, and you get good old fashioned Rabdi. Best eaten chilled. Complements so well with fresh fruits, gulab jamuns, maal-puas, jalebis, etc etc.
Its so good, its just evil (though I would describe the taste as pure heaven)
Oh by the way, incase you are wondering where is the recipe, thats it. Let the milk come to a boil, and then on simmer, keep stirring occasionally, taking care, you do not burn the bottom. Then do the rest, as I mentioned above.
Enjoy!
Thanks Madhu Aunty!
Note: Jitendra Store at Goregaon (a small suburb in Mumbai city), on S.V. Road near the railway station has great Rabdi in little earthern pots. Though, they also mix in fresh fruits, dry fruits and mini rasgullas in it. Yumm!